The Past Days
by T.M.K.06
Summary: Epilogue to TPD1 and TPD2. House's son brings his girlfriend home to meet his family and House's grown children tell stories about their childhood. Find out what has happened to the Household. Ship: Huddy, established.
1. Meet the parents

**The**** Past Days**

_This is the sequel/__epilogue to my stories __The Present Days__ and __The Pregnant Days__. It's 25 years later i.e. the year is 2033 (I know, that's 26 years from today, but The Pregnant days went a little into the future since Aiko was born in February 2007 and had her first birthday at the end of The Pregnant Days). I recommend reading the previous stories first (well, I would, right?) but of course, if you want you can read this alone as well. I'm not sure how that will work though, but be my quest :)_

_As before, I still don't own House or the characters from it, but I seem to have gathered some original playmates for them and those are mine!_

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"We'll just stop here for a moment to say hi to my parents," he said to the girl with him. "Then we'll go on to the house to drop off our things, grab a bite and after that we go to the Uni to get my sister."

"That works fine for me," she smiled at him adoringly. "If you're sure we won't disturb your parents. I can wait to meet them if they are busy."

"They are never too busy for me, and I want the first meeting out of the way," he made a small face. "They can be a bit of an acquired taste, especially Dad."

The young couple walked in through the doors of Princeton-Plainsborough Teaching Hospital and right into a war zone. Fortunately there were only two participants in the war and most of the hospital was going on with business as usual. In fact, judging by the reactions of the personnel the war itself was _business as usual_.

"You will apologize!" An attractive woman in her sixties yelled at the tall man in his seventies standing before him.

"He's a moron!" the man responded. "I'm sorry, but he was born that way. Not my fault."

"He is not a moron," she insisted. "And even if he was you had no business insulting him. Why can't you learn to behave? You don't have to be obnoxious to every clinic patient you meet."

"I'm not, just to those who are morons," he shrugged.

"According to you everyone who comes into this clinic is a moron," she exclaimed.

"Does that include me, too?" the young man asked with a wide smile making the fighting duo stop and turn to look at him.

"Ben! You're home," Cuddy was delighted to see her son and readily turned to give him a big hug.

"Just in time, you can save me from your mother," House smiled. "She is trying to make me do clinic duty again."

"Sorry, Dad," Ben excused himself. "You know I never interfere with MamaLisa when it comes to her running her hospital. You're on your own with this one."

"Traitor," House accused him good-humouredly. "But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You were always a mama's boy."

"Yep, through and through," Ben laughed letting go of his mother and hugging his father next.

"And this is the special someone you wanted us to meet?" Cuddy asked turning to the young lady Ben had with him.

"Yes, this is Melosa Perez," Ben introduced the pretty Latin woman with him.

"Welcome," Cuddy greeted her with a hug too.

"Thank you, I'm happy to meet you," Melosa said.

"Let's have a look at you," House insisted pulling Cuddy away.

"You will not hug her," Cuddy ordered.

"Why not?" House looked offended.

"The last time Ben brought a girl over, you grabbed her ass," Cuddy reminded him.

"That was over five years ago," House dismissed. "Besides, she was coming on to me."

"In your dreams," Cuddy huffed.

"No, MamaLisa, she really was," Ben defended his Dad ruefully. "I found out that the only reason she had dated me was to get to meet the famous Doctor House. I think she had some ideas about getting a fellowship or something out of the meeting. She was definitely flirting with Dad like her life depended on it."

"If that was the case, why was she so upset when House copped a feel?" Cuddy queried pointedly.

"Because she was a (_a_ _cough_) teaser," House explained. "She figured I was too old and too polite to do anything - especially with you there. Her plan was to get me all worked up, get what she wanted from me and not deliver on the implied promises. I just made clear that that was not an option."

"I have to admit that for a medical student she wasn't very bright," Ben nodded. "But I would much rather not talk about her, especially with Melosa here, so could we...?"

"I'm sorry," Cuddy turned to Melosa. "I really didn't mean to bring up Ben's old girlfriends but his father can be rather impossible at times."

"Am not," House huffed. "You just take an exception to the damnest things! Anyway, Miss Perez, welcome to the insanity known as Ben's family." House hugged Melosa.

"Keep your hands to yourself," Cuddy reminded him.

"You can't hug someone if you keep your hands to yourself woman," House threw back at her but kept the hug short and decorous. "You look a little overwhelmed?" He said as he let Melosa go and looked at her – and indeed there was a somewhat dazed look on her face.

"I'm just... I was rather nervous about this meeting, and... " Melosa tried to shrug. "I'm..."

"Yeah," House smiled mischievously and Melosa was startled how exactly like his son he looked, except for the hair (or lack of it), the stubble and the eyes. "We can be a little overwhelming."

"Speak for your self House," Cuddy advised him. "Ben, Melosa, do you have time for a cup of coffee or something? My office will be available in a minute **once your father has apologised to the patient waiting in there**." Cuddy threw a significant glare at House who pretended not to get the point.

Just then a young doctor came into the clinic and seeing House she walked purposefully to him handing him a file: "Doctor House, the test results for our patient."

"Ok, what did you screw up this time Norbert?" House sighed with exaggerated patience earning a wounded look from his Fellow.

"I didn't screw up anything," Dr Norbert insisted indignantly.

"If you say so," House didn't sound very convinced. "Fine, get the rest of the team together and wait for me. I'll be there in five minutes." House dismissed her and then turned to Cuddy. "Sorry, Cuddy, I have a patient who is really sick, I have no time to apologize to morons for having told them the truth." With that he turned to go, but as he walked by Cuddy he landed his hand on her rear for a hearty feel making her yelp in surprise. "You owed me one," he just explained as he walked towards the lifts with a wicked grin on his face.

"Why do I put up with him?" Cuddy was shaking her head when she turned back to her son. "It seems that I have to placate the patient myself. And I can't even play the cripple card anymore. Sorry, but it seems it's I who has no time now. Aiko and Priya are at the house, are you going there next?"

"Yes, MamaLisa," Ben nodded. "Then we will go and get Greer from the Uni. When do you think you guys will be home?"

"I cannot say for sure when your father will be free, you know how he is when he has a patient," Cuddy shrugged. "But I'm coming home soon after five. And I'm afraid I have to warn you, we rather expect quite a few people will just happen to drop by this evening and the whole House-hold is coming over on Sunday."

"Everyone?" Ben wasn't sure he liked the sound of that.

"Yes," Cuddy admitted. "Well, Perri is home anyway but the rest of them... Well, we had to tell Wilson that you're coming and why, and he told Cameron and... you get the picture."

"Yeah, I get the picture," Ben sighed. "Fine, we'll survive. Besides, Melosa will have till then to get used to Dad and if she can survive him, the rest of the House-hold will be easy."

"Surely your family cannot be that scary?" Melosa wondered having recovered a little from her meeting with Ben's father.

"I'm afraid that we can," Cuddy admitted ruefully. "But don't worry, Ben will protect you. Besides, Ben, your father vacated the flat for this weekend. We figured you might want to have a sanctuary ready for Melosa."

"He did?" Ben was surprised and grateful. "Then I'm sure we will do just fine. I must remember to thank him later."

"I hope he makes it home today," Cuddy sighed then she kissed her son on his cheek and patted Melosa reassuringly on her shoulder. "Now, run along and I'll see you later."

Ben and Melosa did as they were told and left the hospital; however, once they got back to their car Ben didn't start it right away. He knew that they had something to talk about first.

"Why didn't you tell me your father is The Doctor Gregory House?" Melosa asked a little accusingly. "Were you afraid I might make a play for him?"

"No, never," Ben stated firmly. "When we met, **I** was impressed how little impressed **you** were by the fact that I'm a famous pianist now, that for the last two years I've been the flavour of the day in music industry. You know that we were on our fifth date already before we started to talk about what we are and what we want and all that. Until then it had been music, and feelings and hopes and life philosophy and things like that. It wasn't till our fifth date that I found out that you are a doctor. That you are starting your internship soon and are looking for a place to do that. I admit that I freaked out a little; I was afraid that if I tell you who my parents are, you will stop seeing me and will just see the son of Gregory House and Lisa Cuddy. Then, when I got to know you better and knew this was something lasting, I didn't quite know how to bring it up. So I consciously made a choice that I was not going to tell you, that you would find out when you met them. Partly that was, because Dad is really difficult to explain to anyone who hasn't actually met him, and partly it was because I didn't want you to pass out due to anxiety before you met him. But mostly it really was that I didn't know how to tell you. But I promise you, none of it was because of Br... Bar... Brandy – I think her name was Brandy – but anyway that girl I brought home some five years ago and who was dating me just to meet my Dad."

"Well you were lucky that I didn't pass out when I realised who they were," Melosa muttered. "That would have made a real great first impression. And I cannot believe that I have been so stupid as not to realise it before now. You have shown me pictures of your family! You look just like your father, only you have your mother's eyes, more hair and you shave, but other than that, you are from the same mould. I can't believe I have been so blind!"

"Dad says that we see what we want to see," Ben explained. "Besides, Dad never smiles in his press photos. He looks grim and forbidding. And in all the family photos he is smiling and goofing around and being a Dad. Same with MamaLisa: the press and publicity photos have her being a thorough professional, dressed up to the nines and made up perfectly. In my photos she is wearing jeans and no make up and she is rumpled and soft and being a mother. Sometimes even I don't see how those photos could be of the same person."

"They must think I'm stupid," Melosa worried.

"No they don't," Ben was sure. "Dad probably guessed that I hadn't told you about them – he rather picks up on things like that – and MamaLisa will forgive you anything since I like you. She may give me an earful once she realises that I didn't warn you before hand, but she will not think any less of you."

"You're sure?" Melosa needed some reassurance still.

"Yes, I'm sure," Ben did his best to give the reassurance needed. "My family may be crazy and different and just plain weird, but it is also very accepting. Once you're in, you're in as you are."

"So what are your sisters like then," Melosa was feeling better, but she didn't want any more surprises like the previous one.

"Yeah, I probably need to tell you about them, too," Ben started cautiously. "Aiko and Priya are doctors and they have already managed to get noticed by the medical community. When they chose to become doctors, they worried about the expectations being Dad's daughters might create so, after consulting with Dad, they chose to change their names. Aiko goes by her Grandfather's name and Priya decided to take mother's name."

"So your sisters are who?" Melosa didn't want to do any guessing.

"Aiko Higa and Priya Cuddy," Ben said.

"Of course they are," Melosa nodded; her day was getting better and better. For two seconds she was seriously thinking of changing careers. She felt totally outranked by Ben's family. "And your third sister?"

"Oh, Greer is still House," Ben explained. "She had no reason to fear the expectations created by that name since she wanted to study literature. Same with me; once I decided to follow a career in music, it was up to me to create my own name. Greer is the Professor of Renaissance studies in Princeton though, and I believe she is the youngest person ever to hold that position. Her own speciality is Milton and we are going to pick her up today after today's lectures."

"Ok," Melosa didn't feel much better; it seemed that she was trying to get into a family of geniuses. Just great! Suddenly she remembered something. "What did your mother mean when she said that she cannot play the _cripple card_?"

"Dad used to be a cripple," Ben clarified. "He had an infarction in his thigh when he was in his late thirties or early forties, it resulted in muscle death and they had to remove a big chunk from his thigh. He suffered from chronic pain for years until about fifteen years ago they finally found a treatment that cured the pain. His right leg is still weaker than this left one and sometimes he still uses a cane, especially when it's cold or the weather is changing or some other reason makes the pain return temporarily. But even then, his leg is much better than it used to be."

"Oh, that's good," Melosa was glad that they had found a cure for the pain. Chronic pain was not something she would have wished on her worst enemy. "And the flat? What was that about?"

"Yeah, that is something else," Ben wasn't quite sure how he was going to explain his family to Melosa. "You see, my parents aren't married and officially they still live in separate addresses, though everybody knows that they really are together. The house we have has a separate flat attached to it and Dad lives in it. MamaLisa lives in the main house and occupies the master bedroom in there. The do spend most of the nights together in the flat or in the master bedroom, but they both claim that they need their own _corners_, as they say, to retire to when needed or else they will end up killing each other. And I'm not totally convinced that they don't actually mean it when they say it. Besides, Dad is not as much a people person as the rest of the family, so he really needs a place to retire to when he gets tired of all the people that tend to converge in the house."

"That sounds unusual," Melosa pondered.

"The whole House-hold is a little unusual, but we – me and my sisters – will try to give you a crash course on it today," Ben informed her. "Don't worry about it. You won't have to meet any of them unprepared."

"Even though I had to meet your parents just that way?" Melosa asked pointedly. "Why should I trust you now?"

"I'm sorry about my parents, I just didn't know how to explain them," Ben was remorseful. "But I don't want to put you into awkward situation with anyone. My parents were pretty safe since they love me and they will love anyone I love, but that's it. No more surprises. I promise."

"Ok, I suppose I can trust you," Melosa relented. "So take me to your sisters, then. I suppose after surviving my first meeting with your father I'm on a roll, so bring it on!"


	2. Sister, sister

_Thank you for your reviews; I don't know for sure yet how many chapters I need for this, but not many, probably four, but I'm going away from my computer on Tuesday, so by then this will be finished. But even though this will be short, I hope you still enjoy :) _

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Ben drove to the house and they carried their bags into the flat (the combination on the lock was same as Ben remembered). They explored the flat and found a note on House's bed saying _if you plan to do the nasty, use the other bedroom._ Melosa had to pretty much wrestle it from Ben who didn't want her to see it for fear of her being offended. She wasn't; having met Ben's father – albeit very briefly – she could just picture the gleeful expression on his face when he wrote that note and she couldn't get angry. She loved the son too much to get angry at the father.

Once they had settled in, Ben took his girl to the main house to meet Aiko and Priya. They found the sisters in the kitchen, as Ben had predicted.

"The kitchen is like Rome," Aiko explained as she greeted Melosa. "All roads lead here."

"And not just in this house," Priya observed dryly. "It seems that people come from all over the world just to have a mug of coffee in this kitchen."

"Was that a dig at me?" Aiko smiled at her sister.

"No, without you there would be no kitchen to come to for anyone," Priya gave an affectionate push to her sister. "No, that wasn't what I meant. It just seems that sometimes the nations from the four corners of the world converge here. We have Aunty Sandy from India, there is Uncle Robert from Australia, Uncle David and Perri are from Europe – and no matter where we all go, like Ben here, who travels round the world twice a year these days, we all come back right here."

"So we do and here you go Mel, your coffee just as you like it," Ben gave Melosa a mug and sat down beside her at the kitchen table with his own drink.

"You met the parents already?" Priya asked next.

"Yes, I did," Melosa responded neutrally. She didn't quite know how to say anything else.

"We walked in in mid-fight," Ben explained. "Dad had insulted one of the patients again and MamaLisa was trying to get him to apologize."

"And how did Dad get out of that?" Aiko asked, taking it for granted that House had not apologized.

"He has a patient," Ben responded and Aiko and Priya nodded like that explained everything – as it did.

"I know," Aiko had noticed the mystified look on Melosa's face. "We tend to speak in code and this whole House-hold can be a little confusing, but you'll get us in time. And until then, don's worry, Ben will interpret for you, or one of us will, if he isn't around. Just ask anything. Heaven knows you don't need to be tactful, not with Dad around."

"Well, I think I'd like to know why you sometimes talk about _family_ and sometimes about a _household_?" Melosa decided to do as told.

"You would go for the difficult one, straight away," Priya laughed.

"Yeah, it's a little difficult to explain," Ben agreed. "Because both concepts are a little flexible."

"Let's try anyway," Aiko insisted. "Firstly the family is obviously us kids and Dad and MamaLisa. There are also Grandma Blythe, who is Dad's mother and then Grandpa Higa who is my grandfather but he is also married to Grandma, so he is step-grandfather to the Trips as well. Ben must have told you some of this already?"

"Yes, that much I knew," Melosa nodded. "It's mostly the aunts and uncles that confuse me."

"I admit, that can get confusing," Priya wasn't surprised. "But most of the aunts and uncles you meet are not really related to us. We do have some aunts and uncles and cousins from MamaLisa's side of the family – and they are family, too, obviously, - but they have never been part of the House-hold. We do meet them, we visit and things like that, but when we were little they lived rather far away and Grandpa and Grandma Cuddy were rather busy helping with their other grandchildren by the time we came along. The Cuddy's are ok and we love them, but they are not that much part of our lives and memories as the House-hold is."

"At one point, _family_ was anyone who lived in this house with us," Aiko went on. "And that included our Nanny and her husband and his cousin. These days we have family who is not living in, like Grandma and Grandpa who are in their nineties and live in a Home close to the hospital. They will come over this Sunday so you will meet them then."

"The House-hold, on the other hand, is just a collection of people who Dad just collected, I suppose," Ben tried to find some way to explain them. "There is Uncle Jimmy, or Dr James Wilson, who is Dad's best friend; there is his wife Dr Petra Gilmar, who was Dad's fellow when we were babies and she helped with us, as did Aunty Quanda, that is Dr Quanda Washington. Then we have Uncle Eric or Dr Eric Foreman, his wife Aunty Sandy a.k.a Dr Chandrakanta – again a fellow for Dad when we were babies. Then we have Aunty Allison better known as Dr Cameron, currently no husband, she just divorced for the third time. Then Aunty Anna, or Miss Hill, she is MamaLisa's assistant at the hospital; she swears she will not retire until Mother does. Then we have our old Nanny Kasumii and her husband David Grey, who is Dad's physical therapist. You will also meet David's cousin Perri because she is staying with us. Right now she is with the Grey's but she will be here when we get back from the university. Her husband, Uncle Robert or Dr Chase is in Australia for a year teaching, so you won't meet him this time. Did I remember every one?"

"I think you remembered quite enough," Priya smiled sympathetically at Melosa who was close to hyperventilating. "Sorry, Melosa, but Ben just doesn't know, not having studied medicine."

"Don't know what?" Ben frowned questioningly. "I know Uncle Jimmy is the go-to guy with cancer and I know all Dad's fellows have made names for themselves in their fields."

"But you have no idea how reverently their names are whispered in the halls of all Universities and hospitals that train doctors," Aiko pointed out. "You have to be there so get it. Even we, Priya and me, don't quite get it, but we have seen the effect those names have on fellow students and even our teachers. Trust me, we learned early on not to talk about Uncles Robert and Eric and the rest of them."

"But you really do not need to worry about them," Priya told Melosa. "They may be famous and everything, but like Ben here, they still put their pants on one leg at a time. But if we want to get Greer we need to get going. We will explain more about this House-hold and our lives once we get back with her."

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They got to the University before the last lecture was over so they snuck to the back of the lecture room to observe. Melosa sat there quietly trying to recover from the day so far. She was starting to develop a serious inferiority complex. Not only was the House-hold full of geniuses, all indications so far were that they were also very good-looking geniuses. Ben, like his father, wasn't handsome in quite the conventional sense. Sure they were both tall and athletic, but their faces were too mobile, too expressive to be called handsome. Arresting, especially when smiling was the word she would use. Aiko was Japanese, so Melosa hadn't been too surprised to see that in real life she was as pretty as her pictures. Short, dark hair, dark almond shaped eyes, golden skin and a figure to die for. Melosa promised herself that this time she would really quit chocolate. And Priya wasn't any less intimidating in that department. She was taller than her mother, but other than that her spitting image, though, she too, like Aiko, kept her dark hair short. And now there was Greer. She looked liked her mother, too, though again taller – from what Melosa could judge sitting at the back of the lecture hall. But her hair was same as Ben's, deep chestnut and it was long, to her waist. And she was the only one of the Trips who had got her father's amazing blue eyes. With sisters like that, and a family full of good-looking people, - Melosa had seen pictures of most of the people whose names Ben had rattled off in the kitchen, even though Ben himself had shown her pictures of his immediate family only – what could he possibly see in her! Sure she was pretty, but nothing out of the ordinary. Sure she was smart, but again, nothing outstanding. What could have made him even notice her in the first place? She sighed, and decided to try to listen to the lecture.

"But without the Fall we wouldn't be human!" The student defending his paper Greer was tearing to pieces was saying.

"True, we wouldn't be human," Greer responded almost sneeringly. "And since when has that been a good thing?"

"But, but..." the student was lost for words.

"If you want to defend your position, have better arguments," Greer told him. "I'm not telling you that it was a Fortunate Fall nor that it was an Unfortunate Fall. You have to make up your own mind about that. But when you do make up your mind about Milton's intentions, have reasons for it! And find them in the poem; that you have a _feeling_ that this is what he meant is not good enough. Read the poem, read his tractates, find out what he thought was the alternative to being human and then come back and tell me why you think he wrote about a Fortunate Fall."

"But that's a lot of work," the student sighed.

"Oh my, so it is!" Greer acted surprised. "It would be so much easier to go with your gut. Your gut however will not help you pass this course. I expect some brain activity as well."

"Professor House," another student wanted to ask a question. "Which is the interpretation you favour?"

"That is my business," Greer told her. "You will not get any extra points for trying to cater to what you think are my opinions. I can tell when you have done your own thinking and when you are just copying somebody else. Besides, I will accept either interpretation if the argument is well grounded. The poem has definitely been interpreted both ways over the years and by much better scholars than any of you will ever make."

"But that means Milton wrote it that way, ambiguously," the girl wondered.

"So he did," Greer agreed. "Your job is to try and unravel some of that ambiguity."

"But if he wrote it ambiguously when he had specifically said at the beginning that he was going to explain the ways of God to man," the girl was still puzzled. "Wasn't he lying?"

"Possibly," Greer didn't seem too distressed. "But then, it is a truth universally acknowledged that everybody lies." Just then the bell rang. "Right, that's it for today. You have your assignments and just to surprise me, do better than you did the last time!"

The students filed out of the lecture hall with speed that suggested they were relieved to go (and not just because it was a Friday). Ben and Melosa, followed by Aiko and Priya, made their way down to the podium.

"So you are taking Dad's advice and torturing them mercilessly," Ben said to his sister as he hugged her.

"But of course," Greer responded with a stunning smile. "Otherwise they might think that my blindness is an invitation to take advantage of me."

"I hear you dispelled that assumption right speedily from the beginning," Priya said as she touched Greer's shoulder to let her know that she was there, too.

"Yes, I heard you lay down the law from the get go," Aiko laughed, as she too, made contact with her sister.

"Start as you mean to go on, I always say," Greer agreed. "Besides, I have heard Dad take over his team too often for it not to rub off on me, too. But you have someone else with you as well?"

"Yes, this is Melosa, I believe I have mentioned her to you once or twice," Ben said drawing Melosa closer.

"I think you may have mentioned her one or two hundred times," Greer agreed as she extended her hand to Melosa. When Melosa took it, Greer pulled her into a hug. "I'm glad to meet you at last. Ben was starting to repeat himself and I want to know you for myself already. May I?" Having finished the hug Greer lifted her hand close to Melosa's face but not touching yet.

"Yes, you may," Melosa nodded and Greer run her fingers lightly all over her face.

"Nice," She approved. "But Ben has always had a good taste – except that one time, but he was only nineteen, then and she was like four – five years older. And more experienced."

"Don't bring her up," Ben warned. "MamaLisa already did."

"Did Dad try to feel Melosa up?" Aiko was surprised.

"No, no. He didn't do anything, mother just wasn't feeling very trusting right then," Ben defended House.

"They were arguing about clinic duty again?" Priya ventured.

"That too, but MamaLisa was trying to make him apologize to a patient," Ben explained.

"Ah, then she was right to feel suspicious," Greer agreed. "He can sometimes get quite outrageous when he wants to get Mother to forget what she was actually trying to make him do."

"He did feel her up on his way to the diagnostics," Ben laughed.

"Like he needed an excuse to do that!" Greer laughed. Just then her assistant made a tiny coughing sound to attract her attention. "You have gathered up my things then, Lia?"

"Yes, professor," she confirmed.

"Thank you, could you take them to my rooms and lock up for the weekend?" Greer requested.

"Of course, professor," Lia accepted the task and left.

"Thanks and have a nice week-end," Greer called after her.

"At least you treat your underlings better than Dad does," Priya observed.

"I have enough fun with torturing my students, I don't need to torture anyone else," Greer pointed out. "Ok, let's get out of here. Only, Melosa, how are you with dogs?"

"Fine, I suppose," Melosa shrugged. "I've never had one, but I get along with the dogs that my friends have."

"Good," Greer said and snapped her fingers. A huge German Shepherd emerged from behind the desk and came to stand next to Greer. "Hector, sit." Hector did as told. Greer crouched down next to it. "Come down Melosa and extend your fist to him slowly so he can smell you. See Hector, this is Melosa. She is Ben's friend and we like her. She is nice and we will be nice to her in turn. Ok?" Hector sniffed Melosa's fist carefully and then he licked it. "Ok, he accepts you, you can scratch his ears." Melosa was happy to pet the beautiful animal and make friends with him – especially the latter thing, since beautiful though he was he also looked like someone who would defend his lady against all comers.

"Right, now that the formalities are over, let's get the heck out of here," Ben announced and they did just that.


	3. Household stories

_I got nice reviews again :) Thank you all!_

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Having got back to the house Ben, his sisters and Melosa went to the flat. The sitting room there was more intimate and they could curl up on the couch and armchairs and House had a fireplace, too, which they lit. Ben and Melosa curled up together on the couch and the sisters took up the armchairs. Perri joined them as well, since she had left her children with Kasumii and David and their children for a few hours.

"So, now that we are comfortable, we are ready for your questions," Greer said from deep in her armchair. Hector was lying at her feet enjoying the warmth of the flames. "And don't feel shy; we know how strange our family is. Sure, it took us some time to realise it, since we've lived all of the 25 years of our lives in it, but it did at some point dawn on us all that this is not the way most families are."

"And more's the pity," Perri stated. "I sure was happy to leave my _normal_ family behind and be adopted by the _House's house of healing_."

"Is that what you call this?" Aiko asked.

"Only behind his back! I don't want to make him barf. But that is what this was for me," Perri said simply. "If David hadn't brought me over and if House hadn't taken me in hand I would now be a drug addict, or criminal, or most likely dead. Definitely not a respectable Norland trained Nanny running my own day-care centre and Nanny Agency nor would I be happily married to a famous doctor. Make no mistake, Melosa, I come from a very respectable family, but my parents were totally career oriented and though they saw to my bodily needs, my emotional well-being didn't even register with them. I wasn't abused, just alone and feeling totally unloved and insignificant."

"How could they not see something like that in their own child?" Melosa wondered. She had had working parents, too, but even though they had often needed to do two jobs to feed, clothe and educate their three children, they always had time for hugs and kisses and to see at one glance if something was making them feel bad.

"They obviously weren't that smart," Priya inserted. "And though I hate the idea of our Perri being miserable most of her childhood, it was still our luck: she came to us and **we** knew how to appreciate her."

"Don't think that House himself made me feel warm and fuzzy," Perri went on with her explanation. "He isn't that kind of person and Blythe was there to take care of that side of things. But from the get go I mattered. Everything about me, my clothes my makeup, my piercings everything went under his scrutiny because everything about me mattered – and not only because I was there to help take care of his children. Suddenly I was significant. Of course, it wasn't smooth sailing from there on, I had my problems still, but I mattered and the whole House-hold helped me heal."

"It's almost like you're talking about a very close-knit village or something, when you talk about the House-hold," Melosa mused.

"That's actually a pretty good description of us," Ben appreciated. "Didn't President Clinton write a book or something when she was still a Senator about how it takes a village to raise a child? I think MamaLisa said something about it?"

"Why do you call your Mother _MamaLisa_?" Melosa suddenly remembered to ask; it had been puzzling her from the beginning.

"We just copied it from Daddy," Greer told her. "We don't actually know how that name was coined and why, but though we have called her Mother, or Mom, or Mommy and I think we tried a few others as well, as we learned more languages, MamaLisa was the one that stuck. It could be because of the way Dad always says it; he just makes it sound like it has more meaning. Later on, of course, when the house was full of mothers it also made sense to know which mother was needed."

"I think it had something to do with the fact that MamaLisa isn't actually legally my mother," Aiko pondered. "They weren't together yet, when my parents died and left me to Daddy so when the adoption was arranged it was only Dad who adopted me. MamaLisa is my alternate guardian but Japanese adoption is not very easy so they didn't go through that again to legalise mother's position to that extent. Besides, it would have been just a formality."

"Makes sense, I suppose," Melosa accepted. "So how many mothers were there in this house then? If you needed special names for each to know who was who?"

"Well, only Aunty Allison actually lived here for about a year when she was going through her first divorce. Her daughter Jane was about a year old then. Jane, though, used to stay with us a lot both when Aunty Allison was a single mother and during her second marriage. Aunty Allison has a tendency to fall in love with men who are suffering from an illness and need someone to take care of them. Then when they are well again, it turns out that the only thing they had in common was the illness. Dad says she is like Uncle Jimmy used to be before Aunty Petra took him in hand." Priya revealed.

"But in addition to Aunty Allison, Kasumii and David had married when we turned four and they had their first child, David junior, when we were five, and that was the same year when Aunty Allison stayed with us," Greer described. "Also the Foreman twins were born and Aunty Sandy was around a lot, then two years later Petra gave birth to their only child, Jimmy junior, Kasumii had her second child, Charles, around then and her youngest, Misty, was born around the time you married Uncle Robert, Perri."

"Yes, I came back home to take care of Rodney and Marcus Foreman, and I married Robert when they were four," Perri nodded. "Then two years after that Kasumii and I started our Nanny Agency and then a little later we added the day care centre. I didn't start having babies till I was 32 so my eldest, Blythe, is now nine, our son Gregory is six, and then we have Lisa who is four and finally Amanda who is two. We all went to Australia for the year with Robert, but we came home two months earlier to arrange things like going back to school and getting the house ready and so on. Robert misses us like crazy and we miss him, but he'll be home soon, too."

"And everyone and their children belong to the House-hold?" Melosa confirmed.

"Yes, and wasn't that a shock for the Child Protective Services," Ben laughed.

"Child Protective Services?" Melosa was all eyes and ears.

"You can imagine we were a bit of a handful," Aiko explained. "I was born in February and the Trips were born in October the same year so by the time we were five, the difference in age was almost insignificant. And we were a wild bunch!"

"Speak for your selves," Greer smiled smugly from her chair.

"Oh, no, don't try to look all innocent there, you might not have been able so see to do everything the rest of us did, but you were mostly the brains behind all of it," Ben accused. "And don't think Dad didn't know it!"

"Can I go on with the story without interruptions from the peanut gallery? Please!" Aiko asked pointedly. "Anyway, going shopping for clothes and other things for us was usually a big hassle. Dad, however, was nothing if not inventive. We were totally animal crazy those days – not that we still aren't but that's a different story – and he got us hooked on stories about Alaska and the huskies and we, of course, wanted to **be** huskies. So he got his wheelchair rigged with harnesses for us and we were allowed to pull him along, like we were huskies, if we promised to behave. I don't know if Ben has told you that Dad used to be a cripple? He didn't need to be in the wheelchair for his leg, but when he was with us, carrying us or watching us he used it, because he didn't trust his leg enough to hold him if he was carrying us and he could wheel faster than we could run, so he was more mobile in it. Anyway, he allowed – or so we thought then – us to play huskies when we went shopping if we promised to behave and then MamaLisa could take us one at a time to be fitted for whatever clothes we needed, and you get the picture. The shops knew us and they definitely remembered us from the time before Dad got us under control, so we used to get a lots of smiles from the salespeople. But one time someone, just a customer in the mall, who didn't really know us, realised that Greer was blind and got all worked up over the whole situation and called the Child Protective Services on us. Of course, by the time they got to the shops we were gone, but Dr Gregory House isn't exactly hard to find, so they came home looking for us."

"And they got a bit of a surprise," Perri laughed taking over from Aiko. "It was a Saturday afternoon, a beautiful summer's day and the whole House-hold was in the backyard. When this lady from the CPS came out there with the two cops she had with her, the backyard was swarming with doctors, there were two Norland Nannies in our working uniforms there, and this reportedly horrible man, Dr Gregory House was flat on his back on the ground, fast asleep in a shade with two babies, four children and four puppies using him as a pillow. And to top it all, Dr Lisa Cuddy, the well-known Head of the Princeton-Plainsborough Teaching Hospital was looking at them in total incomprehension and asking what on Earth were they doing there."

"I was told that nobody has ever beaten a faster retreat than they did," Ben remembered.

"Unless you count Miss Preston," Priya brought up.

"I wasn't there and anyway, it was much later," Ben pointed out.

"Miss Preston?" Melosa sure wanted to hear more.

"I suppose there is no point in beating around the bush," Aiko shrugged. "We were child-geniuses, all of us. Ben could play the piano since he was four and the only thing standing between him and a career as the musical Wonder-kid, was Dad. He said that people could wait to try and get their piece of him until he was old enough to handle them."

"That didn't mean he didn't do everything he could to help me develop my skills," Ben inserted. "Being a doctor of his calibre he had connections and I had master classes with the most amazing people you can imagine. I just wasn't allowed to perform in public much and he made sure I didn't get much press coverage. He said that if my talent was so amazing it would be there still when I was old enough to handle it and everything it brings with it."

"Ben knew early on that he wanted to be a musician, Aiko and I knew since we were ten that we wanted to be doctors and Greer was just curious about everything, but literature and words fascinated her most ever since she was old enough to speak," Priya took up the story. "Dad forced us to go to school just like everyone else and we weren't allowed to jump grades; we finished High school with the same people we had started it. He said that school is not just for learning the subjects that are taught in there, but about being with people our age and learning how to behave in social situations and just about growing up. We did do university courses on the side, and Greer got her Master's at the same time she got her High school diploma. Well, Aiko got her Master's in biology the year before, when she graduated and I got mine with Greer. We weren't allowed to start medical training until Dad deemed us old enough."

"That was what brought about the famous meeting with Miss Preston," Aiko explained. "We were fourteen and we were supposed to have the normal career counselling that all kids had to go through, and we, naturally, stated to her what we wanted to be and she got all exited. I sort of understand her, since the better students the school can show having had the more prestige it gets and more money and even better students and richer parents... again, you get the picture. Anyway, she got all exited that we could be the youngest doctors ever and all that, so we had to tell her that Dad would not allow it. She decided to talk to Dad."

"We told her it was not a good idea," Priya defended them. "But there was no stopping her."

"She went to see Dad and we went with her, because we were hoping we could stop Dad from being too mean to her," Aiko said.

"Dad did listen to her almost politely," Priya remembered. "But then he took us all to the research lab."

"Ugh," Aiko made a face. "He took one of the lab rats out of the cage and brought it over to us."

"We held it while he prepared an injection," Priya went on. "We sort of knew what was going to happen, since we had had the conversation with him before, but Miss Preston didn't."

"Dad took the rat and asked which one of us wanted to give the lethal injection to it," Aiko continued. "Miss Preston went all horrified and indignant and told him that he was being horrible that we were just children and even if it was just a lab rat he had no right to expect us to kill it."

"At which point Dad put the rat back into its cage and asked Miss Preston that if she was so horrified at the idea of us killing a rat, why she wasn't at all concerned over how we would feel when we killed a human being," Priya said. "Miss Preston was totally flustered and she tried to splutter something about Doctors being healers not killers."

"I will always remember what Dad said to that," Aiko recalled. "He said: Being a doctor does not automatically mean you are a healer. The nature of the business is such that sooner or later every doctor will kill a patient. Not just fail to save one but actually kill one. I don't care how smart my kids are, I don't care how much others may want to push them, they will not become doctors until I'm satisfied that they are emotionally ready for the job."

"Then he told Miss Preston to get the Hell out of his hospital," Priya smiled. "And that was the last talk we had with her."

"The way you talk about him," Melissa considered. "You really think he is a great Dad."

"The best," Ben stated simply. "Aiko and Greer have a special bond with him, they practically communicate telepathically with him sometimes, but even though that has been obvious from - I don't even know how long - Priya and I have always known that he loves us as much. We have never been excluded. The same is true with MamaLisa. As Dad said, I have always been Mama's boy, and once Priya hit her teens she, too, gravitated more to Mother, but even so, MamaLisa has always loved us all four equally."

"That's true," Priya agreed. "Though I prefer to go to MamaLisa with my problems, I still know that Dad is there for me just as much. I know his reputation, and I know that he has actually earned it, but to **us** he has always been there. Always. Being a child genius can be an awfully lonely business, even when there are four of us, but he protected us, he kept us grounded and he had our backs. Even when we rebelled, and we were normal teenagers, make no mistake about that, he still made sure we weren't getting ourselves hurt. Of course he had the whole House-hold helping him, but when we have thought back to it all, he was the General – though anyone less military I cannot imagine."

"Unlike his father," Greer muttered.

"Before we go there, we need some wine," Ben announced and got up to do the honours.


	4. Story time continued

Ben brought a bottle of red wine to the table with glasses for everyone except Perri who wanted a soft drink – she just had never learned to drink and saw no reason to change that, especially not with her line of work. He poured the wine in the classes, gave Greer one and then took his and Melosa's to the couch; Aiko and Priya took theirs from the table.

"So your Grandfather is a military man?" Melosa got back to the subject that had been brought up just before Ben decided they needed wine.

"Was, he died a couple of years back, and he was not our Grandfather," Ben stated a little grimly. "He was just Dad's father and Grandma's first husband. We don't accept him as our Grandfather."

"Why?" Melosa asked quietly.

"We got curious about him when we got to the rebellious teens," Greer sighed. "We knew about him, he came up in stories every once in a while, but both Dad and Grandma talked about him like he was a distant connection or something, not a father and a husband."

"At first we took his position as granted, since we knew that Grandma had divorced him and having seen other divorced families by then, we knew that sometimes divorce makes one of the parents to disappear completely," Priya explained. "But then we decided that we wanted to know more; that we really wanted to meet him."

"We were actually planning on running away to visit him," Ben revealed. "But of course we couldn't keep something like that a secret from Dad. He lined us up and told us that was not an option."

"He categorically forbade me to go and see John House," Aiko told Melosa. "But he said that for the Trips he would arrange it. That Ben and Greer and Priya could go and see John, as soon as he could arrange it."

"Were you ok with that?" Melosa queried gently.

"Not at first, no," Aiko recounted.

"But when we got back from meeting John House, you didn't even ask how it had gone," Greer remembered. "You had had a talk with Dad when we were gone. And you never told us what you two had talked about, not all of it."

"No, I didn't tell then and I'm not telling now," Aiko maintained.

"Whatever it was, it had definitely prepared you to our return," Ben declared. "You were not in the least surprised to find out that the visit had been less than successful."

"Dad had arranged for us to visit his Father for a day when John, in turn, was visiting some of his old army buddies in New Jersey," Priya clarified. "He had his new wife with him, and I can't even remember her name but she was nice in a sort of fluffy way."

"Which was a good thing, since otherwise the visit would have been just full of awkward silences," Greer sighed.

"The first of them appearing when he realised that Hector wasn't a pet but your guide-dog," Priya snorted.

"At first we thought he was just surprised and maybe embarrassed for not having known about Greer," Ben mused. "But it didn't take us long to realise that he just didn't like people who were different."

"Different how?" Melosa prompted.

"In any way," Greer confirmed. "We didn't really need that long to realise that he didn't like people who dressed, behaved or thought differently. He didn't like different. Special needs? People need to stop pampering the handicapped; put them in an institution or something – if you're too soft to put them out of their misery, that is."

"He didn't actually say that," Ben reassured Melosa having seen the horrified look on her face. "But it was pretty clear that his thoughts did run on those lines. He definitely assumed that because Greer couldn't see, she couldn't hear or think either."

"He wasn't that interested in me, either," Priya pointed out. "Me being just a girl and once it became apparent that my first goal in life was not a) to get married, b) to sacrifice my life to look after Greer or c) join the military, he didn't know how to relate to me either. Apparently military career was the only acceptable career for a woman who didn't want to fit into the medieval stereotype of a homemaker and nurturer. I think he might have accepted nursing as a profession too, but since I made it clear that I wanted to be a doctor and not just a family practitioner, and my aim was to have a serious career in medicine, he just preferred to concentrate on Ben. He at least was a BOY!"

"We ended up chatting with his wife... we really should remember her name!" Greer fretted. "Even if she was a little light-weight she was nice and kind and hospitable, and once I told her that I could function perfectly well with the help of Hector, she believed me and stopped fussing. What... MAY! That was it, her name was May. Anyway, we had tea with her and talked about shopping and mercilessly left Ben to fend for himself with John House."

"It went well as long as I just listened to his pontificating on the situation in the Middle East and how the country needs its military and how I should consider a career in the military to follow the proud House tradition," Ben didn't sound in the least enthusiastic about any of it. "I did point out that Dad had not followed that tradition but had become a world renowned doctor instead. John wasn't impressed. In fact, I got the impression that he saw Dad as a disappointment."

"How could that be?" Melosa couldn't believe her ears. "The lives he has saved, the doctors he has trained... How could anyone see your Father as a disappointment?"

"Beats me," Priya agreed. "But that was the impression we got. Mind you; had he made his career as a military doctor, I'm sure it would have been different."

"And had he not adopted me," Aiko pointed out. "That, too, might have helped."

"But I understood that your parents had named him as your guardian? I would have thought a military man would see that as a duty, and isn't doing your duty rather the expected thing in the military?" Melosa was puzzled.

"When we mentioned Aiko's name to John," Ben explained. "He was quite surprised that Aiko was still with us. He had expected Dad to have _seen sense_, as he put it, by then and have returned Aiko to Grandpa. He couldn't believe that to us Aiko is our sister and as important to us all as everybody in this family. In fact, Aiko may be the most important person in this family, because without her, there would be no family. If Aiko hadn't come into Dad's life, he would never have got together with MamaLisa, there would have been no need to form the House-hold, there would have been no need to hire a Nanny, Dad would not have looked into alternative forms of pain management and there would have been no Uncle David. Without Aiko, the last 26 years might as well not have happened. But there was no explaining any of that to John House."

"I'm sorry, but he sounds stupid," Melosa concluded.

"He was," Greer declared. "We cut the visit rather short and went back to the hotel nearby where Dad was waiting for us with Aiko."

"He didn't rub it in that we should have realised that there was a good reason why John House was not part of the House-hold," Priya commented. "He just hugged us, gave us lunch and took us home."

"At home Aiko told us that the reason why Dad had no contact with John anymore was because John House had refused to accept Aiko as a granddaughter," Ben explained.

"I got the impression that that was also the reason that finally made Grandma decide on a divorce," Greer observed. "I'm sure it wasn't the only reason, but that was the final straw that ended their marriage which had lasted almost 50 years already!"

"That's a long marriage," Melosa gasped.

"It is," Priya agreed. "But Grandma was of the generation that didn't believe in divorce without a really good reason. And apparently John House wasn't that bad as husbands go."

"Though Grandma has said that she should have divorced him 40 years sooner," Aiko reminded her. "But she is happy now, with Grandpa, so I suppose, in the end, things worked out."

"But even though he knew what his father was like, your Father still arranged the meeting?" Melosa was a little bewildered.

"First of all, we were really set on it," Greer stated.

"And he also didn't want to completely discount the possibility that time and old age might have mellowed John," Ben inserted. "Not that he held much hope for that, but he still didn't want to make up our minds for us."

"And he also thought that since he was our biological Grandfather, we had the right to find out for ourselves what he was like," Priya shrugged. "Though he is protective of us, he has never tried to shield us from the whole world. After all, he wasn't raising us to be kids but to be capable adults, able to function in real world. He has just always made sure that we know where to come when the world hurts us and we need time to recover."

"And if we show signs of not wanting to go out again and risk hurt, he will just push us, unceremoniously out there and tell us to deal with it," Greer laughed.

"You're talking about your prom!" Aiko laughed.

"It wasn't very funny then!" Greer insisted, but she was almost giggling herself.

"What happened?" Melosa was intrigued.

"Well, guys were a little intimidated with us all, because of our brains," Greer explained. "But with me there was also my blindness that created a bit of a barrier for most. I had friends, I wasn't lonely, but when it came to dating – it seemed that nobody was brave enough."

"Could have had something to do with her looks as well," Perri said, taking part in the conversation again, now that they were talking about things she had witnessed, too.

"I don't know, I just know that I had a hard time finding a partner for the prom," Greer shrugged. "However, eventually one guy finally asked me. I don't remember much about him, I think he was in the foot ball team, but not the captain – of course not. I wasn't that impressed with him, but beggars cannot be choosers, so I accepted."

"We weren't too impressed with him either, but you need a date to the prom, so we just decided to keep an eye on him and Greer and make the best of it," Ben added.

"However, the day before the prom I saw that guy in the clinic," Perri took over the story for a moment. "I was there with one of the children in our day care centre and was waiting for test results when I saw this guy and two of his friends there. He had hurt his leg in practise and the other two were there to keep him company. Of course I didn't know who he was, but when he started to talk about this blind girl he was taking to the prom and I figured out who he was. He was openly bragging about his plans – and I'm sure you can imagine what those were – and I was really starting to see red. Just because Greer was blind didn't make her stupid, nor desperate, even if she had had a hard time in finding a date for the prom."

"I might have been willing to accept him as an escort for the prom but no way was I even considering having sex with him," Greer scorned. "I mean, come on, had I been willing to put out, most guys would have been able to overlook my brains and my blindness. Only a moron would have thought that I was going to have sex with him for just taking me to the prom!"

"He was a moron," Priya reminded her.

"He sure was," Perri agreed. "Anyway, House was doing clinic duty that day and I managed to alert him to the situation. He treated the idiot but didn't let on who he was – well, he hardly ever introduced himself to the patients anyway, so that wasn't unusual. He got the boy to talk about the prom and his date and all that and he taped up the leg and said all was well."

"He didn't do anything to the guy?" Melosa asked.

"No, not in the clinic," Perri said. "I had expected him to put the leg in a cast or inject him with something that would have knocked him out for the next two days or so, but he just treated the guy and let him go."

"Dad had a much more devious plan in his mind," Greer explained. "He took me out to get my dress and he got mother take us all into a beauty salon where they did our hair and makeup and everything. So when the Moron came to get me I was ready and all dressed up. Only I wasn't really waiting, since Perri and Dad had told me about the meeting at the clinic. I hadn't wanted to get dressed at all, I didn't want to go to the prom, I didn't want to do anything but stay in bed and wallow."

"Dad wouldn't hear of it," Aiko smiled. "He was of the opinion that the Moron deserved to know what he was going to miss and I have to say his reaction was perfect when he came to get Greer and saw her."

"Yeah, he was speechless," Priya agreed. "Though that reaction was nothing compared to the one he got when Dad came from the living room to stand besides Greer. He was sure he was going to be so dead!"

"He didn't even wait for Dad to do or say anything," Ben laughed. "The moment it registered with him that Dad was the doctor who had treated his leg the day before, he was out of the door and in his car heading out of state like his butt was on fire!"

"Good!" Melosa said. "I presume you made sure the story of his escape made the rounds in a suitably colourful way?"

"Absolutely," Ben said with feeling.

"What about the prom then?" Melosa wanted to know. "Did you go, Greer?"

"Oh, yes," Greer smiled. "I was feeling miserable, but Dad had drafted one of his fellows to take me, Dr Pjotr Arhipov."

"Dr Angel?!" Melosa exclaimed. Dr Pjotr Arhipov was just the most beautiful man on the face of the Earth! No matter what your sexual orientation was when you saw him, you babbled. Blond hair, soft, misty grey eyes and classically perfect face combined with classically perfect body made you wonder if a Greek statue hadn't suddenly sprung to life in front of your eyes.

"The very one," Priya laughed. "He could make even MamaLisa gasp if they came face to face unexpectedly. But he liked being with Greer because she was the only one who did – and possibly even could – treat him like he was no different from anyone else. Well, Greer and Dad, only Dad wasn't nice with it."

"Well, you can imagine I ended up having fun at my prom," Greer smiled at the memory. "When we entered even the band went silent. It was a bit of a sensation and I have to say I enjoyed the reactions. And Pjotr was really good company, too. He is funny and smart and I really had a great time."

"And they have been dating ever since," Aiko sing-songed teasingly.

"I don't know if you can call it dating," Priya doubted mockingly. "Since they haven't got anywhere with it."

"I'm only 25!" Greer exclaimed. "And there was no dating at first, not when he was Dad's fellow. You know how Dad is – was. And probably will be."

"But you are seeing him?" Melosa was almost in awe.

"Yeah, I suppose you could say so," Greer agreed. "We've both been rather career oriented until now, but it's possible we will go somewhere now that I have my tenure. We'll see."

"You should bring him here on Sunday," Ben suggested.

"To take some of the heat off you and Melosa?" Aiko asked.

"Yeah," Ben admitted unashamedly.

"I'll think about it," Greer promised magnanimously.


	5. Always

_This is the end. For real. I'm really not comfortable with writing more, since this happens in the future and I'm no psychic so that I could know how the world changes in the next 25 years. I think I have given you enough material to figure out for yourselves what kind of childhood the kids had and how things will go on with them – and the same with House and Cuddy. At the end of this chapter there is a list of the people that now form the House-hold, in case you got confused :)_

_Thank you so much for your reviews (past, present and future) and for having followed me in this journey. I truly appreciate your opinions and support. I wish I could say that this is my last story, because I seriously need to get a life! Really, I mean it. But I'm fairly sure something will happen during season 4 that will set me off again. House & co tend to find their way to my door and they will not leave me alone until I agree to come out and play. But for now, this is it. Thank you and Good night._

_------------------------_

Sunday evening Melosa was sitting in the living room of the main house. She was curled up against Ben on one of the couches and relaxing. Aiko and Priya had already left for their own homes – Aiko was currently working in San Francisco and Priya in Chicago – since they had to work next day. Greer and Pjotr were sitting in armchairs with Kasumii and David, who were taking a breather before going to their own home next door – Perri had already gone there with her children. Blythe and Higa were sitting on another couch, holding hands and just enjoying being with their family. House was at the piano – not in the least self-conscious though his brilliant son was in the same room – gently trying different tunes to find one that suited his mood. MamaLisa was in the kitchen making drinks for everyone, but her presence was somehow still in the room.

"So, what do you think of my family?" Ben asked Melosa quietly.

"I think I like it," Melosa smiled. "I need to digest all this a little first, but I think I really like it."

Melosa thought back to the week end. The story time in House's flat could have gone on for hours, but Dr Cuddy came home from work and put them to work since she was expecting a lot of people to drift in and out of the house during the week-end – and boy had she been right! Melosa had done her best to take all the famous doctors in her stride, but she had felt overwhelmed. At least until House found her nearly cowering in the kitchen at one point.

"We're really not that scary," he had said to her with a teasing smile – very like Ben's.

"Could you say that again with a bit more conviction in it?" Melosa had asked almost pitifully eliciting a real laugh from Ben's Dad. "I just feel stupid. The people in your house are the ones who wrote the books and articles I have been studying for the last few years! Their names inspire awe everywhere. And that's nothing compared to the reaction **your** name elicits. I'm totally out of my league here. And I don't even understand what Ben could possibly see in me. Compared to this House-hold of yours, I'm depressingly mundane."

"You know, when Greer touches your face," Ben's Dad said musingly. "She doesn't read your features. She reads you, your heart. And she approves of you. You don't need to be super-smart to fit in with us. Not everybody in there is. This House-hold came together to raise four kids; but that wasn't the only reason. We all used to be damaged or lonely or both. And here we all found a home. You have an accepting, kind heart. That is all you need. You fit in just fine. Come on, Ben wants to show you off – as well he should." House took Melosa's hand and led her back to the party.

Melosa was a little dazed when she got back to Ben, but soon she realised that House had been right, all the famous doctors weren't that scary once you got to know them. No matter how famous or smart the people were, this was just a family gathering together to touch base, relax and have fun. And Melosa found out that family also took care of its own. She was standing alone for a moment waiting for Ben to bring her something to eat when Dr Chandrakanta came to her.

"I hear you are looking for an internship," she opened the conversation. "Your professor said that you were interested in paediatrics?"

"My professor?" Melosa felt surprised – even a little ambushed.

"When I heard that you were a medical student, I asked around a little," Chandrakanta confessed. "I hope you don't mind too much, I meant no ill. I'm just curious by nature. And I would not have brought it up at all, but I just happen to be an intern short."

"Oh," Melosa felt how her eyes got bigger and bigger. To train at PPTH! Under Dr Chandrakanta! "I... That... But wouldn't it..."

"Be nepotism at its worst?" Chandrakanta smiled. "Absolutely. But you know that most good internships are given to people who have the connections; merit is a distant second criteria. But make no mistake, if you take my offer, it won't matter why I offered once you start you will work your ass off for me. I would be making no favours to your future patients if I didn't demand your best from you."

"In that case, thank you, I accept," Melosa was surprised, but she wasn't stupid. When an offer like this came along, you took it with both hands. "I want to be the best doctor I can and I promise I will work hard to get there."

"Good," Chandrakanta smiled. "As I'm sure you know in PPTH the first year is rotating and you start specializing on the second year; that is when you will really start to work with me – unless you have totally screwed up your first year. And I think I can now tell you that I didn't ask you because Ben likes you. I asked you because I like you. I believe that for a paediatrician it is important to have a kind and caring heart. Children sense these things, you know. They will feel your warmth and that alone will help with the healing. Now, there's Ben, give him the good news. He will be happy to know that you don't have to travel to the other side of the country for your internship." With a nod Chandrakanta left Melosa to tell Ben what had just happened.

And if that wasn't enough to tell her what it meant to be accepted by the family, she overheard House talk to _Dr Angel_.

"So I hear you have been doing medical research lately," House observed.

"Yes, I seem to have drifted into that field," Pjotr acknowledged.

"But you don't like it," House stated neutrally.

"It is important work," Pjotr pointed out. "We need better medicines, better vaccines, better treatments. There is much work still to be done there."

"True," House agreed. "But not necessarily by you. You like working with patients. You like healing people directly and there are people who do research better than you do, good though you are. Of course, with patients there is the problem that you cannot take accurate blood pressure or pulse unless the patient is unconscious or blind."

"I know," Pjotr replied a little tightly. "Why do you think I switched to research?"

"You know, the beauty about being a diagnostician is that you don't have to do the tests yourself," House mused. "You can order others and then you just view the results and then you see the patients as much or as little as you want."

"What are you talking about?" Pjotr asked intrigued.

"Chase has been the head of diagnostics for the last five years – except now that he is in Australia, and I'm filling in again," House explained. "I have been heading the other team, but without all the headaches and paperwork that comes with being the head. I'm retiring at the end of this year. Naturally I will be around for consulting, but the second team will need a new leader."

"Are you telling me that I...?" Pjotr sounded surprised but hopeful.

"Yeah," House nodded. "I do mean you. If you want to."

"Absolutely," like Melissa a few minutes before, Pjotr too knew a good offer when he heard one. "This is very much what I want!"

"Good," House accepted. "Cuddy will be in touch with you, then." House turned to go but stopped to say something over his shoulder before walking away: "And I just so you know, I made this offer because I think you're the best man for the job, not because you fell in love with Greer at first sight all those years ago – even before you realised she was blind. Which reminds me, when are you going to force her to make an honest man out of you?"

Pjotr stood there with his mouth hanging open and Melosa could easily relate to his feelings. Gregory House MD was something else! Ben had been right, there really was no way to explain what House was, you had to meet him.

Melosa snuggled closer to Ben as she remembered what she had seen and heard and experienced that day and the day before. She had heard a lot more childhood stories – some of them embarrassing to Ben, but still kindly told – she had met more legendary people than she had ever even dreamed of, she had talked with Ben's family and friends and pretty much everyone in the House-hold – even Dr Robert Chase who had called from Australia just to say hi to everyone and she had to agree with Dr House; this all felt like a home. She turned to Ben and smiled.

"Yeah, Ben, I like your family, I like your House-hold."

"Do you think you could put up with being part of it?" Ben asked her. "You know, like for the rest of your life?"

Melosa blinked. She knew that they were dating seriously – of course she did – and that meeting his family was a significant step in their relationship, but could he really be asking what she thought he was asking? "Do you... Are you..?"

"Yeah, I am," Ben smiled. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes," Melosa replied simply. She snuggled even closer taking a surreptitious look around the room. They had been talking quietly and nobody had heard them. And she kind of liked that. She was sure Ben was going to tell everybody soon, but she liked the fact that for a few minutes still they had a secret that was just theirs. Looking around she saw the other couples in the room; David and Kasumii were sharing an armchair and were snuggling together, too; Cuddy had come in as well and she was sitting next to House at the piano, leaning her head against his shoulder and Blythe and Higa were holding hands and smiling at each other while they talked quietly. Melosa nodded towards each of them in turn as she said to Ben: "I want that when I'm forty-five and that when I'm sixty-five and that when I'm ninety-five. Think we can make it?"

"Yeah, if we want it," Ben nodded. "But we have to work for it, just like they have. It hasn't always been easy for them either."

"No, I don't think it could be," Melosa agreed. "Life will throw all sorts of challenges at us, but if we focus on what is important, I think we can make it. I really do."

They fell into silence as it seemed that House had finally found the tune he wanted. Melosa watched his graceful hands as he coaxed the music from the piano, he smiled tenderly at the woman resting her head against his shoulder and he started to sing softly:

_Maybe I didnt treat you__ / Quite as good as I should have / Maybe I didnt love you / Quite as often as I could have / Little things I should have said and done / I just never took the time / You were always on my mind / You were always on my mind / Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasnt died / Give me, give me one more chance / To keep you satisfied, satisfied / Maybe I didnt hold you / All those lonely, lonely times / And I guess I never told you / Im so happy that youre mine / If I make you feel second best / Girl, Im sorry I was blind / You were always on my mind / You were always on my mind / Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasnt died / Give me, give me one more chance / To keep you satisfied, satisfied / Little things I should have said and done / I just never took the time / You were always on my mind / You are always on my mind / You are always on my mind_

-----------------------------------------

The House-hold

Dr Gregory House + Dr Lisa Cuddy

Aiko (26), Priya (25), Greer (25) (+ Pjotr), Ben (25) (+Melosa)

Blythe (93) + Dr Akira Higa (91)

David Grey + Kasumii Tanaka

David jr. (20), Charles (18), Misty (16)

Dr James Wilson + Dr Petra Gilmar

James jr. (18)

Dr Robert Chase + Perri Grey

Blythe (9), Gregory (6), Lisa (4), Amanda (2)

Dr Eric Foreman + Dr Chandrakanta

Rodney (20), Marcus (20)

Dr Allison Cameron

Jane (21)

Miss Anna Hill unmarried

Dr Quanda Washington unmarried


End file.
